Gundanium Peace
by qantaqa
Summary: AC 207: The colonies have quarantined a war-torn Earth for 9 years, but Duo sneaks back to retrieve Heero Yuy nearly five years after his disappearance. A Relena-free fic.
1. Gundanium Peace 00

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It had been over three hundred years since the last nuclear bomb had been disarmed and sent on a rocket into the sun. All the schematics had been burned and all the knowledge erased from books, papers, and computers. Nuclear weaponry only existed in the heads of those who created it. Up until ten years ago, the nuclear age had passed from the forethought of men. But knowledge like that can never be erased, and after the Colony War of A.C. 196, the first atom bomb in four and half centuries was dropped.  
  
The peace won after the Colony Wars lasted only five months. When the first bomb was detonated in Washington, D.C., of the former United States, mass chaos ensued. No one knew who was behind the act of terror, so naturally, people blamed each other. The fragile newborn World Nation collapsed as former nation reestablished their territorial lines, and the second and third bombs were dropped. The new United States mass-retaliated against their believed attackers, setting one bomb upon the reorganized countries of Syria and Saudi Arabia. It did not take more than a month before eleven other countries reassumed the knowledge of nuclear warfare. Saudi Arabia dropped four bombs in the new United States: New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, and Cape Canaveral. Syria, in a joint effort, took out London and Manchester, England, and Berlin, Germany, both realigned and declared allies with the new U.S.  
  
The lines between allies and enemies began to blur after that, as old cultural differences were rehashed and old alliances reborn. The war shifted from nuclear to biological warfare as the first worldwide retrovirus bioweapon was released, attacking ally and foe alike. A year had past since the first bomb, when the colonies completely cut off contact from the Earth, leaving them to their plague. The death toll had been at 1.4 million when contact ceased.  
  
After the plague ravaged the world, being carried to even the most remote regions by personal jets, boats and unregulated shuttle, a new form of virus plague was set into motion, attacking not humans, but vital crops. And the death toll rose.   
  
Three years after the first bomb dropped, the organization responsible for it stood up and proclaimed itself. Not a radical underground freedom group or an Illuminati-esque world-shaping organization, but the grandson of the last CEO of Lockheed Martin, one of the largest weapon suppliers during the Colony Wars. He and his personal militia admitted their crimes against humanities, but far too late. There were too many debts to be paid between countries now. The war they had created for profit had gone far beyond anyone's control, as governments retaliated against each other, overthrew each other, and switched alliances until everyone was an enemy.   
  
Seven years after the first bomb dropped, planes began to disappear from the sky. With no factories, parts, or refined petroleum left to fuel them, and no time, money, or resources for new, airplanes became fewer and fewer. There were so few aboveground cities and bases left, that air power was practically useless already.  
  
Eight years after the first bomb dropped, radios stopped functioning. Batteries were simply not being made anymore. Internet, television, telephones, and satellites had disappeared a few years back, when countries destroyed all their enemy's lines of communication.  
  
Ten years after the first bomb dropped, the planet's surface is all but a nuclear wasteland, crops eaten by virii-carrying insects, soil salted, and water polluted. Rabbits, rats, and other rodents carry the mutated retrovirus plagues and are rampant throughout most livable region of Earth. Most of those people still left are probably immune, but the carriers for the Ebola-like virus is still given wide berth. Nearly nomadic, armies roam their continents for stores of food and small upstart villages pray to survive the looters and the winter upon them. Underground cities, deserted without the power to run then, have become virtual ghost towns to all but bats and mice. There has still been no known contact from the colonies in almost nine years.  
  
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End Transmission. 


	2. Gundanium Peace 01

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After Colony 205.  
  
L3 Colony  
  
"...and so, after nearly five years, the search for war hero Heero Yuy has been disbanded with no further evidence. This is Shannon Christie with CAMMT News. Have a good Christmas, everyone." Quatre turned off the vidcam, not surprised by the news, but still a bit distraught. He had an idea where Heero had gone, in fact, he had no doubt. But he wondered if the man was still alive. He couldn't feel him at all, but amidst the empathic waves of death still coming from Earth in tsunamis, Quatre wasn't even sure he could tell. It didn't matter now anyway. With the strict quarantine still in effect around Earth, no one could get in or out anyway. It was best for him to continue his efforts here in space. Perhaps one day they would reopen Earth, and Quatre had a feeling that if anyone was left, there would be an immense need for new refugee colonies. The Winners had an obligation to prepare for that situation.  
  
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Duo Maxwell wandered into the new M9 colony, looking for a job, an adventure, maybe a certain war hero. He lost his job shortly after Heero's disappearance five years ago, after all, there was no more to create scrap metal, and so, no more Sweepers to collect it. His heavy drinking hadn't helped in his securing a new job either. The need was relatively unnecessary, though. Duo had made saved enough credits to last him a while longer in his ramblings from colony to colony and his occasional binge. They had given up the search for Heero Yuy a few weeks back, and so Duo had given up whatever hope was left of finding him as well. It's not as if the pilots had stayed close, each pursuing his own life and dreams, but when Heero disappeared, they all lost at least a fifth of themselves with him. Like a broken dream in a broken reality, the team of five gundam pilots had shifted, cracked, and broken as well. It was the end of an era.  
  
"Hey! Hey!" Duo hurried on before whoever was calling him caught up. He had hidden his person from society long enough that he should have been forgotten by the few that knew his face, but every once in a while, someone recognized him and made a scene. He just wanted to be left alone. Duo shifted through the shadows, blending in and effectively vanishing with a grace that had not left him, even after a decade of peace. Well, a decade of space peace.  
  
But even as Duo became part of the shadows, he realized the man was following him. Leading the stalker to a relatively secluded alley, Duo turned and took a swing, hitting nothing but air. The man had stopped over ten feet away from Duo and had raised his hands in complete surrender.  
  
"I just need to speak with you. Nothing more. Would you like to go somewhere more neutral?"  
  
"I have nothing I need to say or to hear from anyone... get lost, dude." And Duo turned and walked towards the busy street again.  
  
"Not even about your missing friend?" The man called out to Duo's back. Duo wheeled around, ready to attack, when he saw the man's face. His anger dissipated as quickly as it had appeared and he quietly nodded at the stalker to follow him.  
  
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"Interest me quickly. A beer doesn't last long for me anymore." Duo stared dryly at the man in front of him, who had refused to give his name for "personal security reasons." As if there was anything to be secure against. These times were full of fat-bellied people, voting for fat-bellied representatives to feed into an already soft, fat-bellied government.  
  
"Ex-gundam pilot Heero Yuy is still on Earth, but he died almost three and a half years ago."  
  
"Yeah, and? I thought you had important information for me?"  
  
"It was a matter of importance to me. The notice of his death was the last communiqué I've had from Earth. My contact there wished to send deepest sympathies for the loss of you friend, but life on Earth those days was difficult." The man looked up, mildly interested in the reaction in the still long-haired ex-pilot. "That was all I had to say. My colleagues and I tried reaching the other pilots, but they either couldn't be found, like yourself, or wouldn't see us."  
  
"And just how did you communicate with Earth? Secret channels? Encoded satellite transmissions? Besides being high treason to communicate with Earth, since the dust cloud settled in the atmosphere, I heard you can't even get an x-ray through, much less a coherent satellite transmission. You know, I don't want to hear whatever it is you're going to make up. I'm outta here. You can pick up the tab for my drink, by the way."  
  
"Last I heard, they had found a way to preserve the body. They want someone to pick it up for a proper space burial."  
  
"Dude, you have got to be fucking kidding me. I've tried everything I could to get to Earth. It just isn't possible. If you could get past the quarantine shield troops you'd just be flying into to giant sanding machine. Go in shuttle, come out ground-up, radioactive dust."  
  
"There's a way to get there. It's not guaranteed, but it's a chance. I'll be here for the next few hours for when you change your mind."  
  
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Duo might have come to regret the decision later, but sleep seemed more important then ever as he slept off perhaps the last hangover of his life. The shuttle had engaged its experimental cloaking device over an hour ago, but Duo just couldn't get interested in whether they made it past quarantine or not. He had fallen asleep knowing he was going to die of massive radiation, being ground into space dust, being blown up by a stray anti-aircraft missile, having his insides turned into a runny goo of blood and retrovirus, being... just before he fell asleep he realized just how little the ideas really bother him.  
  
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End Transmission. 


	3. Gundanium Peace 02

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The jolting woke Duo up, as the shuttle entered the Earth's dust laden atmosphere. A sharp whirring sound began, and Duo guessed that the thick dust had begun to grind up every piece of metal on the plane. He could see through the shuttle's portholes, so thick was the gray volcanic debris. It was amazing that they were even attempting this at all. He knew there were spots in the atmosphere where the ash was almost non-existent. These holes in the dust and atmosphere may have made for hellish living on the surface, but they were much better than flying a shuttle through this. The noise was getting louder, and the remnants of his hangover headache were starting to ignite with pain. Duo forced his mind off the results of last night binge when he felt a presence behind him. Turning to look, he saw an unusually tall and dark man of Asian descent. The man bowed his head to Duo, just before disappearing in a flash of motion. Duo's head was pinned and his eyes blinded by dark cloth before he could remove his seatbelt and get out of the man's way.  
  
"I hope you will forgive this terrible shame, but it is necessary. For our protection as well as yours," the Asian man said with only the faintest tinge of a hard-to-place accent. "You will have the blindfold removed when we reach our destination. From the moment we crash land to our rendezvous, there will always be five of us completely surrounding you. Again, this is for both yours and our protection."  
  
"Why are you so calm about us crashing? And, uh, I don't suppose you would tell me where this 'destination' is exactly, either?"  
  
"We haven't had a successful shuttle landing since the sky was stolen by the ash. And, I am very sorry, but I cannot tell you where we are going."  
  
"M'Kay. Figured as much."  
  
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Two men walked stiffly through the door of Quatre's office. The blonde looked up, instincts warning him, and narrowed his eyes, "There something wrong, isn't there, guys?" he said to the two Maguanacs that had stepped in.  
  
Instead of answering, they stumbled into the room, knocked out by another two men that Quatre did not recognize.  
  
"I apologize for the use of force. You will find that no one has been seriously harmed."  
  
"What exactly is the meaning of this? Your actions will have you in front of a colony tribunal for high treason," Quatre spat his words at the intruders, angry for the breach of peace.  
  
"As I said, we apologize for the use of force necessary, but we needed to speak with you about a matter you might find of interest." The lead intruder stepped around the unconscious Maguanac bodies. Holding out his hand, he introduced himself. "My name is William Marshall. My partner is Timmard McVeen." He gave a slight nervous smile, more a quivering of the lips than anything. When Quatre starred hard into his eyes and blatantly ignored the outheld hand, he frowned.  
  
McVeen spoke up. "We came to give you information. You don't have to listen, but you don't need to be uncivil about it either. We tried official channels to contact you, but you've got more screeners than the damned Colony Council itself."  
  
"Enough, Tim. We have information about some of your fellow Gundam pilots. And we need your help." Marshall looked toward the blonde man for acknowledgement.  
  
"They are 'ex'-Gundam pilots. And I don't suppose I have much choose in the matter, considering you've got the guns."  
  
"You're right, on both counts," Marshall set his gun down on Quatre's desk and motioned for McVeen to do the same. "I'll get straight to the point. The 'former' Gundam pilots, Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell, have returned to the Earth to retrieve Pilot Heero Yuy's body."  
  
Quatre turned a sharp, but bewildered look to the taller man. "What, what exactly do you mean?"  
  
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"If you'll follow me to the Corporal, she is waiting to have a word," Major Asosa spoke, turning towards a short hallway.   
  
As they stepped into the doorway Duo replied, "A corporal? A she? Low rank military personnel giving you orders? And I thought you were the bossman around her. Well, I guess that proves the old saying true: Behind every successful man, stands-"  
  
"-a surprised woman," interrupted another voice.  
  
"Um, well, actually, I was gonna say," Duo turned his head towards the voice of the person who interrupted his quip, only to find a smallish woman surrounded by a dozen or so war-hardened soldiers. Guns were leveled just low enough to be considered incautious, but to the careful viewer, they were just high enough to be immediately effective. "Yeah, well, I was gonna say, uh, just exactly what you said."  
  
"No doubt," the woman deadpanned.   
  
The soldiers lowered their weapons to a relatively relaxed state, following an unseen order from the woman. Well, the slight flicked hand was unseen to all but a trained eye. Duo may not have been a soldier for nearly a decade, but he remember his training well. His attention became immediate as he nonchalantly took in all of his surroundings.  
  
Major Asosa nodded his head towards the woman, "That is the Corporal. Corporal is just a title, not a rank; show both respect and caution when speaking with her."   
  
"Thanks, Asosa. Badger, Treighton, your units are dismissed." As the room cleared, the Corporal focused on Duo. Duo looked her over carefully, just as she searched him over carefully; looking for weapons, strengths and weaknesses, nervousness, anything that would give her a sign of what to expect. After the initial look-over, taking no more than a split second, the Corporal released her rifle, letting it slide down the shoulder strap to her side, and waved for Duo to sit. Duo sat at the same time as she, and began to question her.  
  
"Now that the pleasantries are finished, what the hell am I doing here. Why was I blindfolded the whole way? And just what the fuck is this talk about Heero's body, like he's dead or something?" The woman sighed, her expression never changing as she looked to him.  
  
"And so it starts."  
  
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End Transmission. 


	4. Gundanium Peace 03

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Quatre's bewildered expression turned to a frowning one the men told their story, what little story they had for him, anyway. Like many colonists, they had family on Earth when the colonies called for a full enforced quarantine. However, unlike most, they felt the colony should have stepped in to help stop Earth's self annihilation. Beyond their own story, there was very little that they knew. They had only received two transmissions from Earth in the last four years. The first had been to inform them of their contact's movement to the west side of the North American continent. The second was to tell them to seek out the remaining Gundam pilots - to bring Heero Yuy's body back to space. According to the men, it was his wish to be 'buried' in space. After that, there were no more transmissions. Marshall didn't know whether his contact was dead, or could simply not find any communications equipment that had power or that had not been corroded by time, explosive dust, or nuclear fallout.  
  
"Have you any proof? Anything at all to prove you are who you say you are, and that Heero is truly dead on Earth?" Quatre glanced towards the men, already knowing that they were speaking the truth. He had heard only the vaguest rumours about the happenings on Earth, and these men supposedly were part of the organization that leaked the hearsay. But what did they want from him, when there was no way to get to Earth? What did they hope to gain?  
  
Marshall started, "Please, Mr. Winner, call the fifth Gundam pilot - ex-Gundam pilot. We have not been able to reach him through our station on L5. We would like to speak with him also. I will try to explain further what is happening here, and I do not wish to explain it two times."  
  
"Why are you telling me this? How do you know that I won't turn you in to the Council Tribunal?"  
  
"We haven't got much of a choice. You Gundam pilots, our Earth-side leader felt that you are Earth's last hope for salvation."  
  
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"And so it begins."  
  
The Corporal looked to Duo, nearly expressionless, but still thoughtful, as if debating the best way to tell a child his father has died. "We blindfolded you for several reasons. We have a temporary hideout in these caverns and I need to be sure our place here is protected. Two, your eyes will have difficulty adjusting outside. There is ground up dust, sand, and radioactive debris throughout the atmosphere in this area. Most of us are unaffected by this now, but I couldn't have you blinded before you even came to us. And lastly, the soldier's disease. Again, I think that we here are immune, but I don't know about you. I have some people here who believe the surest and quickest way to get the disease is as it absorbs through mucus. Others believe it is airborne and enters the body through open eyes and wounds. Know one knows for sure how it's spread, though, so it didn't hurt to take precautions with our... newest guest.  
  
That answered your first question. As for question two, I thought that was clear enough already. Your friend, Yuy, is dead. His single expressed wish to us was that his body be returned to space for a space burial." She sat back in the banged-up wooden chair and placed her feet on her desk, rocking the chair back and forth on its two hind legs. As she sat patiently waiting for his reply, or perhaps not caring if he replied at all, Duo looked her over once more. She was unusually healthy looking compared to the others he had seen. He wondered if she received extra rations for her 'leadership'. These people were all the same. Her clothes were ragged and the inch-thick silk cloak she wore looked as if it had seen better days. He could still see bullets embedded in it, as if were an armour of some sort. A curved sword rested at her side, unsheathed and slipped through her belt. He didn't know a damned thing about swords, but he guessed it looked lethal enough. And then the gun she had, a much older make than he had seen before, it had no electronics that he could make out. But then he seemed to recall something about the Earth losing its ability to create power. Come to think of it, no one had any electrical equipment around here, and torches lighted the place.   
  
Duo let his gaze roll off of the woman and ran it around the room. This second look-over involved more than just seeking out weapons and escape routes, though. The ceiling was pretty high, thirty or forty feet, and it wasn't built, but a natural cave ceiling. It seemed someone had made this base from the inner linings of a mountain, only building up what was needed. The rest of the room was plain though, the man made walls were an old cracking concrete, showing more than just a decade worth of neglect and aging. The Corporal and her men seemed to have bunked up in an old underground fortress. He didn't like it here, he decided. Not at all.  
  
"So let's make this happen, babe. Let's grab Heero and get me off this rock."  
  
"Ah, and therein lies the problem. The shuttle that sent you crash landed." She replied, still annoyingly unaffected by the whole situation.  
  
"So, get another one or fix this one. Hell, gimme some parts and tools and I'll fix this one."  
  
"There are no parts, or tools, or fuel to replace that lost in the eventual explosion. And there are certainly no other shuttles. The shuttle you came here on was supposed to be able to withstand the entry, but it was still experimental. You can't leave unless another shuttle lands with the ability to take back off."  
  
"You're freaking kidding me. I was told the cloaking device on the shuttle was experimental, not the WHOLE FREAKIN' SHUTTLE." She looked to him, then stood up and motion for him to follow. Unsure of what was going on, and suddenly too tired to care, he got up and followed. Walking out of the room, she nodded to Asosa, who stood at the entrance. "Asosa will show you to a place to sleep. Asosa, see if you can't get him some food from Snuff. And tell the men we're marching tomorrow."  
  
The Corporal turned to Duo once again, looked him over, and nodded. With a sharp turnabout, she returned to the room they had just left, and Asosa began to walk down the hall.  
  
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"So, why exactly is she the head of this group? And a corporal above a major, especially such a nice guy like yourself?" Grinning, Duo stopped before the door of the room that Asosa had led him to.  
  
"I told you. 'Corporal' is just a title." The tall, regal black man nodded his head towards the room. "You better get rested. I'll have Snuff bring you in something in a bit." And with that he closed the door the room, locking it with a quick snip, and leaving Duo a prisoner in a place he didn't know, with people he didn't know, for reasons he didn't know. He plopped to the cot. Folding his hands behind his head, Duo waited and thought.  
  
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End Transmission. 


End file.
